By Gavin Adamson
(February 23 – 17:00 ET) – U.S. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan says he will not raise interest rates purely because of high stock valuations. He was testifying before the Senate banking committee. Tech investors reacted strongly.
Tech issues everywhere headed north with the Nasdaq, in particular, soaring to 4550.21, up 168.09. Internet stocks and computer networking companies saw their share price fly. Cisco put on US$7 7/8 to $131 13/16. Qualcomm added $8 15/16 to $139 1/2. AOL and Time Warner saw big gains after a Merrill Lynch analyst improved their recommendations because of the merger.
Toronto Stock Exchange tech issues were swept up in the optimism as well. Nortel added C$8.05 to $174.50, and it’s parent BCE closed up $6.40 to $171.50 as well. Fibre optics giant JDS Uniphase bloated by $31 to $344, and Research In Motion added $14 to $174.
CDNX continued to rise on the back of Savanna Resources. The penny stock was heavily traded again today, and added a cent, to 11 cents.
The Dow turned around late in the day too, on the strength of companies like Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, which added $3 3/16 to $93 5/16. Still, losers beat out winner on the NYSE by a margin of 3 to 1. The S&P was up almost nine points at the end of the day.